


Seal

by DearCat



Series: Tumblr Archive [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Angst, Bad Parenting, Consequences, Daddy Issues, Developing Relationship, Flame Sealing (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Sharing Body Heat, Tsuna is a human heater, cuddling for warmth, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-01-21 08:28:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21296498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DearCat/pseuds/DearCat
Summary: If Dying-Will Flames are the representation of a person's resolve, then sealing them away will always have its consequences.
Relationships: Sawada Tsunayoshi & Xanxus, Sawada Tsunayoshi/Xanxus
Series: Tumblr Archive [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533116
Comments: 45
Kudos: 1247





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!

Most people assume that the seal is gone, it’s not. It’s broken, there’s a difference. The pieces are still there, in Tsuna’s head, grasping and pulling, trying to put Tsuna’s own will under lock and key. It’s like fighting 24/7 against an anchor and Tsuna lives in a constant state of fear. Fear of waking up one day to realize that he lost enough control and the seal snapped back into place, binding him strongly enough to leave him a hollow mockery of himself.

Tsuna knows that feeling all too well, he has lived with it for most of his life. Eight years lost to a haze.

So yes, Tsuna’s a wimp, how could he be anything else? He’s always terrified.

He hates Nono for it, hatred so strong that it surprises Tsuna but he’s smart enough not to breathe a word. Not too long ago, Tsuna had been bullied on every front, if he has learnt anything from it, it’s how to tell when to run and when to hold his ground. So Tsuna doesn’t let it show, he smiles to the man that ruined him, calls him grandfather and lets everybody think all is well.

Timoteo is old, it’s a waiting game Tsuna has every advantage in. 

That’s why it surprises him so much when, one night, having found Xanxus on his way to plastered on the library’s floor, Tsuna takes all the abuse being hurled at him and then opens his own mouth. Words are flowing out of him without his permission but he cannot seem to find it in himself to stop.

The Varia Commander listens in stupified surprise as Tsuna whispers his secrets. But the angry front of the man’s fear loses its edge and in a moment of empathy, Tsuna thinks it’s a fair trade.

Xanxus never looks at him quite the same. His gaze seems to re-evaluate all of Tsuna’s actions, his stance is more open and the next time Tsuna finds him on his way to drunken oblivion, Xanxus pulls Tsuna down beside him and puts a bottle in Tsuna’s hand.

* * *

Both Tsuna and Xanxus were sealed, it’s just that the methods used were very different for each of them. 

To Tsuna, they sealed his flames under lock and key, they were still there but trapped, unreachable to him. Like a dam. Sooner or later the seal would not have been able to support the pressure. His flames would have then sprung free and burn his body away while at it. 

They unbalanced him, parted him in two when he was meant to be a whole. As a consequence of the seal, Tsuna’s flames have learnt to stay under his skin. It’s why it’s been so hard for him to learn to pull them out. It feels unnatural to him. It’s why he always runs so hot, too.

To Xanxus, they didn’t so much seal his flames as much as they sealed his body away using his flames as a battery. People forget but Zero Point Breakthrough isn’t normal ice. It was a self-sustaining prison, every little bit of flame that Xanxus produced was immediately stolen by the technic, reversed into maintaining the ice that kept him trapped.

Thanks to it, Xanxus body has learnt to throw out as many flames as possible in a futile effort at self-preservation. It leaves the man’s flames spreading around him and, on the bad days, Xanxus feeling inexplicably cold.

Admittedly, it takes Tsuna far too long to notice. Distracted as he is with Xanxus calculating eyes on him. In his defence, Tsuna has his secrets to keep and having anybody watching him so closely puts him ill at ease. And Xanxus? He’s far more observant than people give him credit for.

But Tsuna does notice it, after a while. He sees the way Xanxus hogs the sunlight, the small hidden shivers when the wind picks up even a little, and feels the slow dawning of realization. Because Zero Point Breakthrough might not be normal ice but it’s still ice, all the same, cold enough to burn. 

So the next time they abscond themselves in a room, surrounded by liquor and darkness and with both of their right hand’s running interference on the outside, Tsuna decides to try and do something about it. So this time, he sits close enough to the older man that they can feel each other’s heat but not close enough to touch.

It’s a silent invitation and Tsuna knows Xanxus realizes it. They’ve gotten better and better at talking without words but the Varia Commander’s only acknowledgement of it is a slight stiffening of his shoulders before he forces himself to relax. That’s alright, both of them have their pride.

Tsuna continues to offer but Xanxus only starts taking him up on it once fall starts making way for winter. It starts small, with Xanxus pulling himself close enough that their shoulders are touching. It evolves from there, to the point that Tsuna finds himself used as a hot water bottle on the very bad days.

Squalo starts calling for Tsuna’s help, sometimes. And Xanxus gets more comfortable the more Tsuna shows how little he minds. After all, Xanxus has taken to run interference when Timoteo and Iemitsu both show up to bother him and Tsuna starts feeling jittery with anxiety. Being a hot water bottle in return feels cheap in comparison.

On a particularly terrible day, Tsuna finds himself crushed to the other man’s chest in a futile attempt to warm the older man up enough to at least lessen the violent shivers. Xanxus starts murmuring on Tsuna’s ear, chattering teeth making it difficult to understand.

But Tsuna listens all the same. He listens and learns about being in a changing state between unconsciousness and agony, of sometimes being awake enough to feel his own flames freezing and forcing them desperately out, of passing out and finding it mercy. Tsuna listens and learns and tries as hard as he can to heat the older man up. 

The next time Tsuna has to hear Timoteo call Xanxus “my son”, voice sweet as honey, he almost throws up.


	2. Winter Holiday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsuna just didn't see it coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sort of sorry.
> 
> Enjoy!

They had been careful, oh so very careful, in continuing their arrangement. Nobody talked about it, there was no reason given, it was simply an unspoken agreement based on their shared uneasiness of the Ninth Generation.

Maybe they hadn’t been careful enough.

Tsuna has no idea what the Ninth knows, what Iemitsu knows, nor does he have any idea of what they think about it. All he knows is that it got him in this fucked up situation and it’s messing with his head. Tsuna resists the urge to close his eyes in exhaustion and forces himself not to tremble.

His mother keeps on talking excitedly, all three men sitting around her and pretending to listen. Or maybe that’s just Tsuna. He feels a little guilty about it underneath the sea of terrified fury and betrayal. When his mother had insisted on spending a holiday with him, Tsuna had thought nothing of it. He hadn’t expected the ambush.

He hadn’t expected his mother to play along either and maybe he should have. Maybe is foolish to think otherwise, Nana understands very little and has been told nothing at all, no matter how much Tsuna hates it. To her, she’s probably trying to mend a father-son relationship that has hit one too many bumps along the way.

It’s so much more than that, though. And Tsuna finds himself forced to endure Timoteo’s and Iemitsu’s flames bearing down on him. They keep trying to force his flames into some sort of submissive compliance, intentions disguised as something kinder, it makes Tsuna’s skin crawl.

Or maybe Tsuna is reading too much into it. Maybe they want the easy resonance that Tsuna’s and Xanxus’ flames have finally fallen into, about a year and some more months after their first night of silent companionship. Maybe that’s all it is or maybe Tsuna is right to be wary. It doesn’t matter. The feeling of their flames insistently pushing against his skin is terrifying and irritating in equal measures. Disturbing.

A shower is just one of the things he wishes for. For a second, he allows himself to wish for Reborn, who even to this day he can’t help but think of as invincible, for Xanxus, who is an expert at redirecting this two powerful men. But even now, feeling the edges of the broken seal flaring on his forehead, he can’t quite wish this on the older man and Reborn is on a mission, far out of reach.

Just one more night, he reminds himself, just one more. Endure this much and then escape, he’ll know to look out for this in the future. He won’t be caught unaware anymore.

That night, like the others, Tsuna can’t go to sleep. He stays awake, not even bothering to change into his nightclothes, and lets the wine calm his nerves. He thinks he can do it, it’s only one more night and tomorrow morning he’ll be gone as fast as politeness allows. Maybe he jinxed himself.

Flames bare down on him, far more insistent, far less subtle, than all the previous days. It leaves Tsuna gasping, skin overheated to the point his fingers start charring the glass he’s holding. But Tsuna resists the urge to let his flames out, he will not give these two men access to his will.

Instead, hoping that the phone’s flame-resistant technology will survive long enough, Tsuna reaches for his phone and calls Gokudera. Let his right-hand man stage a rescue, Tsuna is sure Reborn will forgive him this lapse in gentlemanly behaviour.

“Tenth?”

Tsuna can only gasp. The flames bearing down on him turn hotter and Tsuna half bites back a sob. It seems to he answer enough.

“I’ll let mama know there was an emergency. We’ll have extraction ready in five, boss. Less if the Varia can help.” Gokudera sounds so angry, so worried.

The warmth in his chest is half overheating from keeping his own flames so tightly constrained and half grateful bewildered love. “Thank you, Hayato.”

He loses time after that, has convoluted memories of smiling at his mother, apologizing for having to leave so suddenly, bowing at Timoteo and Iemitsu just to avoid shaking their hands. A car ride, maybe. Voices around him. Arms are surroundIng him, freezing cold against his overheated skin and Tsuna tries to flinch away. 

It _hurts_. 

“Stay still, Dame-Tsuna.”

Reborn, Tsuna thinks, with something close to relief, and forces himself to stop squirming. He wants to reach for him, hold Reborn against his chest. Reborn allowed that sometimes when Tsuna really needed the comfort. But Reborn is adult-sized now and kneeling in front of him and Tsuna’s arms are pinned at his sides so he rests his forehead against his tutor’s collarbone instead.

Movement behind him has the chest pressed to his back plastering itself more firmly to him and Tsuna shudders, sobs. It’s too cold against his skin. There’s breath against his nape and muttered whispers he can barely make out. A litany of apologies against his skin and Tsuna blinks, lets his fingers tangle on the fabric they’re resting on. “Xanxus?”

“Tsunayoshi,” the assassin sounds so tired that Tsuna is immediately concerned, “I need you to work with me.”

“Ok,” he whispers, “ok.” His throat is raspy and his head is hurting but he can do this, he can.

“Alright, come on.” Xanxus shifts, tangles his hands with Tsuna’s and Tsuna resists the urge to pull away at the cold. “Pull your flames out, slowly. Come on, with me.”

But Tsuna remembers flames bearing down on him, insistent and painful, and he shakes, lurches forward in a barely aborted attempt to escape and then sobs. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Xanxus, no, don’t make me.”

A hand on his nape gets him to stop babbling, keeps him quiet. His tutor looks grim and Xanxus exhales wetly behind him. Tsuna is pretty sure he’s not the only one crying anymore. He can’t even remember when he started to cry, to begin with. He lets out a sob that rattles his entire frame but stops fighting Xanxus as the man coaches his flames out. Tsuna helplessly buries his head a little more firmly against Reborn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My [Tumblr](https://dearcat1.tumblr.com).

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked my first attempt at actually writing this pairing properly. I'm not sure I captured them correctly but eh... This is mostly an exercise.
> 
> You can find the original of the first one [here](https://dearcat1.tumblr.com/post/188697112355/seal) and the second one [here](https://dearcat1.tumblr.com/post/188775624590/hotcold).


End file.
